Anat Fort is new to me (that’s why I haunt ECM—there are always artists to discover.) And If has mystical effects. Visions of the Middle East echo here. I’m transported past courtyards glowing at dusk… down shadowy, sand-swept alleyways.. The journey becomes a narrative full of possibilities.

Music leading to an oasis.

I know that’s abstract but it’s like discovering a muse. You just have to listen and you’ll write your own text.

Charles Lloyd has a new album out from ECM called Mirror. That’s big news for jazz fans. This studio recording of the Charles Lloyd Quartet features Jason Moran (piano), Reuben Rogers (double-bass), and Eric Harland (drums). As for the leader, Charles Lloyd just gets better with age and is really soaring on Mirror. If you can’t catch them touring this is the next best thing.

It summarizes the mix of music I’ve been listening to lately, while working on the August issue of Zoom Street. It would take a study at M.I.T. to determine the effects of various kinds of music on the production and design of a digital magazine. I can’t be objective, but I know listening to the noirish electronic sounds of Beat Connection’s Surf Noir has had an impact.

It certainly explains why I was visited by a bikini-clad AnnetteFunicello asking me for a lift to Utica. Too bad, as i was looking for a muse.

BTW, you can download Surf Noir for FREE at this link. (Favorite cut: In the Water, which is where I wish I was right now.)

Man, I wish I’d had this in my ear when I was writing Shoot to Thrill down in San Diego. Nothing like a jolt of jazz from this Norwegian electric guitar master. The CD is part homage to Coltrane, with a mix of hard-boiled jazz and rock fusing together in a noir-like cinematic soundtrack. Think a mobster’s shadow in a neon-lit alleyways.

At least that’s how I hear it here in the Bay Area with July’s odd mix of heat, fog, and chilly mornings.

Chris DiGirolamo at Two for the Show Media have been showering us with some cool jazz lately. Indeed, I was knocked out of my chair this weekend by trumpeter Suresh Singaratnam‘s new CD, Lost in New York. It’s a mindblower of mood-swings from mellow to scorching. Listen to the cut Fortress of Sound and feel the full force of a jazz-blasting juggernaut.

Listening to Lost in New York was like spending a weekend in Manhattan, from Central Park to SoHo—a manic subterranean soundtrack that captures the city’s pulse.

How’s this for a plum assignment: photograph the Charles Lloyd Quartet in concert at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Needless to say the place was packed and the concert was phenomenal. Alas, they wouldn’t let photographers up on the stage. No flash, no tripod allowed. And the lights were as low as you can go. I was able to get these shots thanks to a high ISO setting (3200) on a Nikon D300s. (Will somebody lend me a FAST 300mm lens?)

Reuben Rogers on bass

Jason Moran on piano

Eric Harland on drums

Man this cat can blow! And not just with his sax, either. During an encore Lloyd made magic with the flute on Booker’s Garden. It hypnotized the house. That cut, by the way, is on the album Rabe de Nube (Tail of a Cloud) from ECM and I urge you to grab it here on Amazon—it’s pure joy.

At one point he even took over the piano and treated us to another instrument–his voice—as he intoned some Buddhist wisdom. Clearly his music is all about connecting to people.

At 70, Charles Lloyd is at the top of his game…an ageless angel, arching and kicking, hitting sweet spots that had me soaring. This was jazz heaven, full of surprises and highs and transcendent sounds. The concert had so many memorable moments they’re still echoing as I write this. Reuben Rogers performed one of the longest most inspired bass riffs I’ve ever heard. Jason Moran’s piano segued seamlessly from cool to hot to classical improv. There was a wonderful pas de deux between Moran and drummer Eric Harland. They had me turning my head side to side, like watching a tennis match.

The audience was not simply connected to the sound, but totally plugged in for two blissful hours.